This long Twitter thread recommending ways that American cities can start reining in police violence and clearing out bad cops like Chauvin is relevant.
A summary of the items on the list. None of these should impact the ability of the police to do their jobs in a liberal democracy; taken together they’ll make a career in policing in the U.S. very unattractive to white supremacists and sociopathic thugs…
- Abolish qualified immunity [An informal judicial doctrine that prevents a police officer from being sued civilly for violating your rights unless that right was “clearly established” – in the opinion of the judge – at the time of the alleged violation.]
- Require police to carry malpractice insurance
- Use pay incentives to get a better breed of police officer
- Incentivize community policing [i.e. cops should live in the neighbourhoods they patrol]
- Make “Brady lists” [D.A. lists of cops who are known liars and therefore unreliable prosecution witnesses] public record
- Abolish cities’ sweetheart deals with police unions
- Require de-escalation in Use of Force policies alongside public, transparent training on de-escalation [no more “warrior training”, APCs, etc.]
- End “tail-light policing” [traffic stops existing as pretexts for searches, harassment, etc.] entirely
- Mandate a separation between the crime response units and investigative units in a department
- Automatic special prosecutors for all police brutality incidents
- More frequent USDOJ intervention
- Expand data collection and mandatory reporting on use-of-force incidents (and other police activity generally)
- Enact statutory protections to restore the 4th / 5th / 6th / 8th Amendments [after centuries of court decisions have weakened them]
- Scale back, or eliminate entirely, “contempt of cop” statutes
- Stronger sentencing for police misconduct offenses
